Here you can find a collection of the newest developments at UniGR, among them the measures taken at the different universities during the pandemic, initiatives of our partner universities and ideas of the UniGR-Center for Border Studies as well as a selection of media appearences.
In light of the current pandemic, our partner universities and the academic society as a whole face unprecedented challenges, shaking the usual functioning to its very foundations. At this point, we would like to express our solidarity and respect with the ones engaged in ensuring the continuity of the mission of the universities. The cross-border university cooperation emerges stronger from these new challenges and will take on a new dimension as illustrated by the initiatives below:
Measures taken at the universities of the Greater Region in the course of the pandemic:
A joint overview about the measures taken at each of our six UniGR universities concerning teaching, exams, access on campus and many more can be found in this table (DE/FR only, status as of: 28/05/20).
Attestation of Higher Education for students to cross the border:
In light of the current border closures (Status as of: 12/05/20), the federal government hast decided to grant the status of cross-border commuters to students of transnational study programs and has informed the federal police (which is in charge of the border control). More information and the documents necessary can be found on the website of the federal police, section 4.
Initiatives of our partner universities in times of COVID-19:
Creativity and inventiveness are not scarce goods in times of crisis! This is the result of the numerous initiatives of our partner universities you can find on this page. The collection emerged in course of the series of the same name with two contributions per week on our Facebook page.
Initiatives of the UniGR-Center for Border Studies:
The COVID-19 pandemic is boon and bane for research at the same time. The UniGR-Center for Border Studies has started two initiatives on its website, to face the pandemic on a scientific level: the Blog BorderObs collects recent contributions of scientists treating the developments at borders and in border regions. The Border Gallery, which already "exhibited" photos of borders around the world before the pandemic, has now its own section "Borders in Times of COVID-19", where photos of the "new" borders are displayed. Feel free to have a look!
Press review:
The heute journal (ZDF, National German TV station) has broadcast a detailed report on April 28th about the work of UniGR, especially in lights of the closed borders at that time. Besides the General Secretary Frédérique Seidel, the researcher Christian Wille of the UniGR-Center for Border Studies and the student of the Master in Border Studies, Lukas Redemann, were interviewed. The ZDF media library can be found here, the report starts at minute 7:40.
On April 14th, the UniGR published a press statement about the new dimension of cross-border cooperation, broaching the issue of the impact of border closure on our UniGR cooperation as well as describing the new paths explored due to the crisis. How exciting initiatives grow inspite this unknown situation can be found out here. The border closures are also subject of a statement of UniGR to the Landtag des Saarlandes (federal state parliament), which can be read here (German / French).
In this Interview on the radio with the French channel RCF (at minute 9:30), general secretary Frédérique Seidel explains the pandemic's impact on the daily cooperation between the universities of the Greater Region as well as the obstacles in everyday life connected to the border closures.
A detailed press review can be found shortly in a section of the same name on the UniGR website.